Intro


Hi and welcome! My name is Jennie Dickerson, and I will be using this site to incorporate the curriculum of MGMT 7160 into the business practices of Medtronic. Join me in this final semester on the journey towards the culmination of the Masters of Business Administration program at the University of Memphis.


Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Medtronic and DaVita Healthcare Partners Team Up

It is amazing the parts of the body that are connected in some way. For example, through research Medtronic has done, it has discovered that patients on dialysis are more likely to develop arrhythmias. As a result, Medtronic and DaVita Kidney Care, a division of DaVita Healthcare Partners, have announced a new joint venture for the purpose of doing more research on the correlated issues with a larger patient population. Together, Medtronic and DaVita will develop a pilot program to identify cardiac arrhythmias in end-stage renal disease patients using Medtonic’s Reveal LINQ™ Insertable Cardiac Monitoring system. The research will help DaVita learn more about how to improve the lives or ESRD patients and prevent cardiac episodes. This joint venture is classified as an asymmetric alliance with the strategy of learning from competitors.

Since DaVita and Medtronic do different things and occupy different markets, there is no need to fear tacit collusion. There is also little risk of either company moving into the other’s industry as competition because their roles are so different. Their common factor is the patient itself but not the role in the healthcare industry. In addition, because it is a pilot program for the purpose of research, the project has a defined scope, and likely, a timeline. There is little risk for a learning race because the research must be completed to obtain credible results. The two companies appear to be sharing duties well, as DaVita has the patients and the medical records, while Medtronic is providing the device and the monitoring.

One strategy Medtronic may be using is managing uncertainty. This venture is based on research and Medtronic needed a wider pool of patients. Before releasing a new product on the market, or to gain credibility for an existing product, Medtronic is doing the studies to verify the product’s effectiveness. The study itself may be managing the risk of marketing the product.


While most strategic alliances have to worry about the possibility of cheating by one or both parties, joint ventures are the least likely alliances to experience cheating because both parties are financially invested and the venture is its own separate entity. 

http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/154470/will-davita-kidney-care-gain-on-medtronic-collaboration
http://www.nephrologynews.com/articles/110548-davita-medtronic-to-collaborate-to-identify-cardiac-arrhythmias-in-patients-receiving-dialysis

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